Dust particles can damage electronic items, such as magnetic disk drives or semi-conductors. For example, with the currently extremely narrow fly height requirements, even the smallest of particles can cause damage to a disk. Electronic items, such as these, are manufactured in a clean room to prevent and reduce the amount of dust particles that the electronic items are exposed to.
Therefore, during the process of manufacturing an electronic item, a microparticle measurement apparatus can be used to determine the amount of dust particles inside the clean room or on the surface of the electronic item. Gas can pass through the microparticle measurement apparatus to collect and count dust particles in order to estimate the amount of dust particles that have adhered to the electronic item as a part of quality control measurements. Action can be taken to reduce the amount of dust particles if the quality control measurements indicate that the amount of dust particles is above an acceptable threshold.
The drawings referred to in this description should not be understood as being drawn to scale except if specifically noted.